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It’s New Year’s resolution time and so, not surprisingly, many of the cookbooks hitting shelves these days revolve around nutrition and weight loss. One that’s getting a lot of attention is The Whole30: Fast & Easy, a cookbook compliant with the Whole30 Diet.

Originally started as a website in 2009, Whole30 was created by sports nutritionists (and ex-husband and wife team) Melissa Hartwig and Dallas Hartwig. The part-paleo, part Atkins-style Whole30 Diet consists of cutting out sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, soy and junk food for 30 days, then slowly reintroducing them to see how they affect the body.

The plan, which has drawn criticism over a lack of scientific backing, has surged in popularity over the last few years, partly due to the #fitspo (a portmanteau of fitness and inspiration) community on Instagram with models and athletes promoting the diet. The first Whole30 book, It Starts With Food (2014) sold more than 400,000 copies as of 2016.

In the latest book, The Whole30: Fast & Easy ($35, Penguin Random House), Melissa Hartwig has created 150 weeknight-friendly recipes. Most are meat paired with vegetables in the form of stir-frys, stews, salads, roasts and wraps (the wraps being lettuce since tortillas are forbidden). Since legumes, soy and grains are not allowed, non-meat eaters basically have eggs, nuts and seeds as a source of protein.

The recipes do sound tasty. Ones that caught my eye are the Salisbury Steak Meatballs with Sweet Potato Noodles, Turnip and Leek Soup with Bacon, and Winter Greens and Potato Soup with Poached Eggs. They also consist of ingredients the home cook probably already has with easy-to-follow instructions.

That being said, I’m not a Whole30 convert. I’m in the “everything in moderation” camp, having found banning and demonizing foods creates insane cravings that ultimately lead to binges and feelings of guilt. The book’s intro states “Don’t even consider the possibility of a ‘slip’ ” and says “do not re-create baked goods, ‘treats,’ or junk foods with approved ingredients.” So if I somehow MacGyver a muffin out of coconut flour and kale, I’ve fallen off the diet. There are no dessert recipes in this book.

If I stuck to the plan for a month, I could see my grocery bill going up with the emphasis on meat and seafood. I can also forget entire swaths of cuisines from around the world that thrived on these banned foods for millennia. Also, aren’t we all supposed to be cutting down on meat and seafood for the sake of the environment? The Whole30 was also slammed by a panel of health experts last week from US News and World Report, who called the diet “severely restrictive” with “an absence of scientific support.”

So, I suggest a compromise with The Whole30: Fast & Easy. Instead of following it strictly for a month, use the recipes — which are genuinely fast and tasty — as a guideline whenever you like and make substitutions to suit your tastes. If you want, replace the pork chops with tofu when frying it with sweet potatoes and Swiss chard. The book calls for cauliflower rice in the lemon-garlic shrimp and veggies, but I’m going to use regular rice because no one on Earth can convince a Chinese guy that cauliflower is a viable substitute.

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As for this recipe for pork-apple meatballs with spaghetti squash, rip some crusty French bread to dip into the broth. I dare you.

Pork-Apple Meatball Noodle Bowls

The book states that the chicken broth has to be “Whole30 compliant.” It turns out the chicken broth I usually use (Campbell’s) lists soybean oil as a possible ingredient (soy is verboten), so I used the PC Blue Menu brand instead. The recipe uses a 2 lb. (900g) spaghetti squash, which I don’t think is enough for four servings as the recipe suggests, so either make more squash to adequately feed four or keep it at two servings with leftover meatballs.

Place squash halves cut-side down in a microwave-safe baking dish. Cover with damp white paper towel and microwave on high until tender, 12 to 15 minutes.

While squash is cooking, heat 1 tbsp (15 mL) oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook meatballs, careful not to overcrowd pan, until browned all over and cooked thoroughly, about 10 minutes. Transfer cooked meatballs to a bowl and cover with foil to keep warm. Add broth to hot skillet, scraping off any browned bits with a spatula. Add broth to bowl of meatballs and recover with foil.

Wipe skillet clean and heat 2 tbsp (30 mL) oil over medium heat. Fry fresh sage leaves for 30 seconds, turning with tongs once or twice. Transfer leaves to a plate lined with paper towel where they will crisp up.

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